Sunday, September 25, 2011

I'm a Student

Well, I'm about halfway through my undergrad schooling.  I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, but at least I'm headed down the hill.  I have decided to go to grad school.

It seems when school starts my blog stops.  I am very busy and all, but that isn't the main reason I don't blog, it's more just because everyday seems about the same, so I don't wanna bore my audience of three (Mom, Dad, and Sister Christy.  Sometimes my roommates take a gander at this thing).

I am trying to get more involved with things.  In fact, a pretty big A Capella group was holding auditions.  I decided to go for it, but then I got sick and puked my guts out.  They agreed to reschedule an audition just more me for Saturday, September 25 (yesterday), but I still didn't have a voice despite feeling much better.  It seems whenever a gig or audition comes along I get sick.  I can't to gymnastics, break dancing, or even run now and it doesn't seem like I'm supposed to sing for anything official.  Perhaps these are signs of Someone telling me to focus elsewhere?  I'm just a little bummed because that's pretty much all I like to do, except for computers.

I'm getting to the point in school where I'm actually specializing in my field of study, Computer Science.  I realized I need to become more involved with it all.  After the whole not being able to audition thing, I thought I'd join the programming club.  I sent them an email and I haven't heard back.  Seriously.

Anyways, not that you care, but hear are my classes I am currently taking.
Here is my weekly layout.  What you don't see are my working hours which are Tues, Thurs, Fri from 8:00am - 10:00am.
Here is a more in-depth scoop on my classes.
I am minoring in Management.  I can't say I like it very much because it's all relative and a bunch of memorizing.  It seems that all I do is memorize these strange laws on how to do business IN THE U.S. ONLY.  They are all man made laws that have been created and modified over a long period time, so they aren't all that great, practical, or even efficient.  It's all a man made science that is important to know, but not for me.  My marketing class however is quite enjoyable because it's about people, and I love people, so I like it.


This class is quite stressful.  Why?  Because I literally learn nothing in the classroom that is at all relevant to any assignment or lab.  The teacher is awesome and going to class is quite a pleasure.  The material is heavy Internet based which is rather esoteric and hard to grasp.  So I spend a lot of time with my buddy Nozomi trying to figure everything out.  It is, however, quite interesting.  We are learning how to hack into other systems and bypass the BYU firewall/security and basically do whatever we want to whomever we want.  Many words of caution pass from the teachers mouth with a happy jocular tone.
Stats, this class is such a WASTE OF TIME!!  Now I love learning, but this is high school allover again.  I have already taught myself all that I'm "learning" in this class.  I took my first test for the class yesterday and got a 96%.  I don't mean to come off haughty but that should have been a 100%.  Everyone in the class is a Freshmen, so I shouldn't expect anything different I suppose.  At least the teacher is funny.
This is everyone's favorite class, including mine.  You might say I a biased towards it since it's taught by my dad's life long best friend Uncle Alex Baugh.  He knows exactly how to teach a class that causes the students to actually learn the material while making the students spend a good amount of time outside of class.  I don't brain cram for the class, but rather study and just take everything in for the sake of learning it.  Also, Uncle Baugh is so passionate about the material that the class is heavily interesting and the bell rings to leave far too quickly.  I am taking this class with my buds Kurt and Buddy, which makes things even better.  This class should be required for everyone to take.  It's all about how the church was restored in this dispensation for crying out loud.  Perhaps they feel the required D&C class will do the job.  However, I took a D&C class and hated it.  Also, I remember NOTHING from it despite receiving an 'A' in it.


Ok, this class is awesome.  It's not a class for everyone, but it's fascinating the things I learn regarding executing algorithms and their execution times/speeds.  It's all number theory and just makes sense.  It's amazing the problems with numbers that have been proven unsolvable.  I believe I am witnessing the limits of computational power in this life that we'll have to wait until the next life to be able to solve.  Does P = NP?  I'm convinced it doesn't, but I also doubt it's impossible to prove/know in this life.


So my good friend bought a spots spass with his girl friends.  They have since broken up, so naturally he gave me his ticket.  The seats were sick awesome.  I wasn't planning on going to the game because I was sick and had a lot of home work, but since college football is huge and EVERYONE loves and cares for it, I thought this is my chance to just go to the came.  It was the big rival game of the season against the University of Utah, so I had to go, right?

Well, I got there a little early.  I felt ill so I called my roommate Preston and asked him to bring me some Ibuprofen from my room.  I found my seat and saw my friend's ex-girlfriend there with some guy sitting in my seat.  Um, just a little awkward.  I like my friend's ex, but still, just a little weird.  My roommate gave me my drugs and I took them.  I then asked him if he go the drugs out of a little bottle or a big bottle.  He said he got them out of a little bottle.  Crap.  He totally gave me Ibuprofen P.M..  Awesome.  Things sucked.  Then the band played and one half of the band was literally two whole counts behind the other half of the band.  Meh.  Well, to make a long painful game sound short, BYU lost 10 to 54.  I'm never going to another BYU football game again.


The cheerleaders were...fun.


This pretty much sums it up.


Well my roommates and some girls just started a movie in my front room and I think I'll go join them.  I love you all.  I haven't had caffeine for almost two months.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your schedule James. I love to see how you're doing. I'm sorry you've been sick. I didn't know you were. :( I hope you're doing better. I loved the picture of all BYU fans sitting there somber while the Ute fan in the middle was cheering. That was very funny. Did you take it? A classic. I'm sorry the game wasn't to exciting for you, but at least you got to sit in front of the cheerleaders. Don't be too down - I know that good things are around the corner for you! :)

    Love you tons,
    Mom

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  2. Hi James - way sweet blog post. I laughed several times. You express yourself very well. I'm glad you like your teachers. Alex really likes having you in the class. You need to ask him how the drive back from Nauvoo was. I'm very proud of you. Let me know if I can help with the health problems... You are a survivor for sure but I'm sad your health is a challenge some days. Great job on the caffeine!! Love you! Dad

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  3. lol "I am never going to another BYU football game again." I don't really like the Utes, so I was sad to see they had tromped BYU. I hope ASU beats UoU next week.

    As far as your schedule...goodness. I haven't seen Alex for awhile. I imagine he is a GREAT instructor.

    I can't believe your anti-caffeine binge. I'll drink some for you AND me. Nice work.

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  4. That Ute in the middle of the BYU fans was one of the greatest photos I've seen recently. You should submit it to the U--they'd love you.

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